


Songbird

by Rebekah_Matthews



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25268986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebekah_Matthews/pseuds/Rebekah_Matthews
Summary: In dedication of the late Naya Rivera who played Santana Lopez.Santana and Brittany are travelling to the Bahamas for their third wedding anniversary. When Brittany falls asleep, Santana retrieves her gift from Brit from her bag and goes through a collection of memories that celebrate her love with the blonde cheerleader over the years. A true celebration of real love, Santana muses how real love didn't wait for them: it embraced them warmly and made them whole.
Relationships: Santana Lopez/Brittany S. Pierce
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	Songbird

**Author's Note:**

> This story is dedicated to Naya Rivera who left us on 8 July 2020. She brought us along on Santana's journey to teach us to love and accept ourselves, and real love exists for us all.
> 
> I hope you like this little diddy I wrote in honour of Naya Rivera. I've always loved Santana and Brittany on Glee - Santana had a long journey ahead of her to find and accept herself. It took the right person to help her and that person was Brittany. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
> 
> The songs referred to in this one shot that were pivotal moments in Brittana's relationship:  
> Landslide - Fleetwood Mac  
> Songbird - Fleetwood Mac  
> If I Can't Have You - Bee Gees  
> Mine - Taylor Swift  
> If I Die Young - The Band Perry  
> Valerie - Amy Winehouse version  
> Our Day Will Come - Ruby & the Romantics

Santana sat back in her seat, averting her eyes from the view of clouds and endless skies through the little airplane window. She couldn't stop the smile crossing her face as she gazed affectionately at her slumbering wife of three years to this day in the seat next to her. She gently squeezed her hand as she bent down to reach for her bag so that she could bring out the anniversary present that Brittany gave her before they boarded the plane. Her smile only got wider when she stared at the cover of the book that had a photo of herself in Brittany's arms photoshopped in a sea of clouds underneath the caption "Lord Tubbington Thinks You're Purrrrfect and So Do I, Wife". She opened the book to the first page where she saw the familiar script in Brit's hand reading _'I love you Santana. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone else in this world. All I know about you and I is that because of that, I think anything is possible.'_

She slid her finger under the page and turned over to see a charcoal drawing of a forest with many tall trees on an uneven terrain with the first two trees at the front knocking into each other. She flickered her eyes over to the side of the page where words were written in various slants down the page: _'You took my love and you took it down. You climbed a mountain and turned around. And you saw your reflection in the snow-covered hills, where the landslide brought you down to me."_ Santana saw herself sat in the choir room with Holly Holiday performing the Fleetwood Mac song to tell Brittany how she felt about her. That was the first day Santana found the strength to be open with her. They had never battled with confusion as much as on that day. She smiled to think how far she'd come since that day.

She flipped to the next page where a detailed drawing of a pair of lovebirds in vibrant watercolours, where one lovebird had its head nestled under the beak of the first, was painted. Around the drawing, particular words were scripted to remind Santana of the first time she sang to Brittany her feelings for her in the choir room. She read, " _And the songbirds are singing, like they know the score, And I love you, I love you, I love you, like never before."_ Underneath the drawing, the words " _And I wish you all the love in the world, but most of all, I wish it from myself"_ were captioned which reminded Santana of how difficult it was to open up to Brittany in a way that she hadn't been ready to with anyone else _._ She glanced at her sleeping wife and she mused to herself how this blonde dancer was the reason that she was who she is today. Without Brittany, she wasn't sure that she would have been able to be herself in a world that wasn't open to accept her. But Brit made her realise that it didn't matter while she loved her.

She turned to the next page to see a picture of herself dressed in a coral jumpsuit, her long, dark hair hanging loose about her shoulders with a gold scarf wrapped around her head, looking every inch the goddess of disco. There were no words on this page. But Santana knew exactly what Brittany was saying to her. This was the day Santana sang _If I Can't Have You_ by the Bee Gees to her and this was Brit's way of reminding her that the feeling was absolutely mutual. Santana remembered sitting in the back room of the choir room, watching her, counting the times Brittany would smile at her and dying inside on the days she didn't. The choir room was where they fell in love, where she could say things with music, when words just weren't enough. Well, a picture was worth a thousand words and Brittany chose one that captured a moment where they just knew.

The memory of those words were strengthened by the next page which had a drawing of the world with a ribbon around it with a bow half tied at the side. One part of the world had an arrow pointing to it which Santana then realised was Ohio and a lake was drawn to the side of the world with two stick people drawn side by side. In a speech bubble, she recognised Brit's familiar handwriting which said, ' _I remember how we felt sitting by the water, and every time I look at you, it's like the first time, I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter, you are the best thing that's ever been mine'._ Santana couldn't help the little giggle that burst out of her when she saw the little drawing of a cheerleader Brittany holding onto the end of the ribbon. Along the length of the ribbon were the words: _'Flashforward, and we're taking on the world together'._ Sadness welled up in her when she recalled breaking up with Brittany after she moved to Louisville. She thought that that feeling of being empty inside would never go away. She let herself think back to the day she visited McKinley after finding out that Sam was dating Brittany. She asked Elaine to pretend to be her girlfriend so that Brittany wouldn't know that she was alone. She felt unable to move on from Brittany for a long time.

The thing about being alone is that it can never last. At some point, we all need to reach out and find comfort. At first, to what we know: the people, the places, how everything used to be. But things change. And no matter what you do, it's never going to be the same. So the question becomes: where do you go? What do you do? Maybe it doesn't matter as long as you go somewhere. So, Santana went to New York, and tried to find herself, but she never quite felt complete. Turning the page over, she paused, running her finger over the watercolour river painted down the full length of the page, where a rainbow was drawn in the distant end of the river and a boat drawn atop the surface of the water, carrying a bed of red roses in the depths of it. The picture was in black and white, with only the opening buds of the roses depicted in a heavy shade of red. She could never forget the memorial the glee club held at McKinley in honour of Finn. She was unable to finish her song for him that day and the full impact of her grief hit her hard. At the end of the week, it was Brittany who found her, took her hand in hers and sang _If I Die Young_ together, with no witnesses. Then she cried with her. Brittany was her rock.

It was some time down the line when Brit was accepted into MIT and later, everyone returned to McKinley after the glee club were defeated at Nationals to share stories and celebrate what the last 100 lessons meant to them. Santana mused about her old feud with Rachel. It was Brittany was the one who reminded her that she was strong enough to walk away from something that didn't matter to her. She spent months tangled up in knots, not knowing who she was or where she was in her life, and Brittany spent minutes talking to her and she straightened her out, untying the knots and clearing the clouds in the sky. Months later, she found Brittany who felt like she had lost herself at MIT and Santana helped her find herself again with the only song she knew how.

Her eyes stared at the photograph of the 2010 Western Ohio Sectional Championship trophy in the choir room. Brittany had stuck photos on the bottom left and top right corners of Brit dancing with Mike and Santana singing in front of the girls moving their arms in perfect synchronicity, respectively. Underneath the middle photo, Santana smiled at Brittany's inscription: _'You remind me who I am.'_

She flipped to the next page to see a photo of them in their bridal gowns at their wedding. There was nothing else on the page. She smiled affectionately at the photo and flipped the page again. There was a photo of her with Brit, stood next to the newlyweds Blaine and Kurt. Brittany had scrawled under the photo, _'the unicorns found their lobster.'_ Santana laughed. She recalled when Brittany couldn't get enough of the TV series _Friends_ and found she had a certain connection with Phoebe Buffay. Sometime later, rather than participate in her maths class, Brittany spent the time drawing and colouring in a lobster and broke into Santana's locker to pin it up. When she asked her about it, Brit simply replied that it's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life. _You can actually see old lobster couples, walking around their tank, you know, holding claws._ Santana smiled at the memory of those words being quoted to her.

She flicked over and found a photo of the two couples at the reception with microphones in their hands. Instantly she recalled the moment: they sang the song _Our Day Will Come_ by Ruby and the Romantics. It was unforgettable. That day, they brought together two people who were real love and showed everyone what real love looked like.

"That was my favourite," Brittany's voice broke through Santana's walk-through memory lane.

Santana turned to Brittany with a smirk.

"Good sleep?" she asked, leaning over to kiss her.

"Must be the air," Brittany teased, kissing her back.

She leaned over Santana, running her finger over their wedding picture.

"That was a perfect day," Brittany murmured.

"The best day," Santana nodded. "A life with you will be even better."

_When I'm with Brittany, I finally understand what people are talking about when they talk about love._

* * *

"The only thing that can keep you from freezing to death is to have good friends around you to keep you warm." – Santana Lopez


End file.
